A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Alfred L. Werker

Writers:

Lou Breslow (screenplay)
Lou Breslow (story)

Release Date:

7 August 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Stan and Ollie get involved with con men, crooks, a genial magician, and two interchangeable coffins with disastrous but funny results.

Plot Keywords:

Coffin | Magician | Duckling | Telephone | Laurel And Hardy

Cast

Stan Laurel	...	Stan (as Laurel)
Oliver Hardy	...	Ollie (as Hardy)
Dante	...	Dante the Magician (as Dante the Magician)
Sheila Ryan	...	Margo
John Shelton	...	Tommy White
Don Costello	...	Doc Lake
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Frank Lucas
Edward Gargan	...	Police Lt. Foster
Addison Richards	...	Attorney Malcolm Kilgore
George Lynn	...	Darby Mason
James Bush	...	Joe Morgan
Lou Lubin	...	Dixie Beeler
Robert Emmett Keane	...	Parker
Richard Lane	...	Phillips
Willie Best	...	Waiter

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Canada:F (Ontario) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) | Finland:S

Company:

Laurel and Hardy Feature Productions

Trivia:

Dante the Magician (Dante) was hired for the movie after one of the writers saw him performing on a street corner in Los Angeles.

Quotes:

Stan Laurel: How about some dinner? I'm getting hungry.
Oliver Hardy: Don't be so greedy. We just split a hamburger, and besides we can eat in Dayton for half of what it costs us in the diner.
Stan Laurel: I know, but I'll be twice as hungry in the morning.
Oliver Hardy: [with finality] Don't bicker!

Movie Connections:

References Sons of the Desert (1933)

Obviously a typo..should have been A-Flaunting We Will Go

....Flaunting their lack of interest in the project that is!

Whether it is L A H's poorest cinematic moment or not is quite immaterial, it is crappy entertainment any which way you cut it. One reviewer nailed it. Here we have Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy the actors....NOT their beloved characters. They were arguably past their prime here and it shows, if nothing else, in their disinterest and discomfort. A couple of amusing moments do not justify the 68 minute run time. I will not belabor the plotline again..others have done that.

It pains me to bag ANY L & H pic but regrettably this effort is deserving of little else. I recall watching it first as a child in 1954 at Saturday morning pictures. Even THEN it was held up as one of the worst we'd seen in several weeks. When I saw it again twenty seven years later nothing had happened to alter my opinion. About time for the next quarter of a century review....I fear the worst!